Sunday Post #22

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It's a chance to share news ~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share new about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

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This week has gone a little better. I didn't get as much visiting in as I wanted, but personal family issues are starting to get resolved.  So, I think I will start having more time to read, write, and blog along with blog visiting.  That's a good thing!

Now, the big news!  I'm celebrating 4 Years of Blogging!! Yep!  And A HUUUGE giveaway going on and loads of author posts. :D I have lists on my left Sidebar, and I'll list them here (below) as well! :)  Hope you take advantage of checking them all out and getting a glimpse into books I've loved.  AND there's more to come this week! Woot woot!

What's Happening in Books:

Current Read:
Along Came a Spider by Kate SeRine

Finished Last Week:
Requiem by Ken Scholes

Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell - a podcast reading of the book. (while at work I'm listening)

Finished Podcast Book Listen:
I haven't got to the Podcasts yet.  I will, they are lining up on me.

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Last Week on the Blog:

Top 5 Reads for July 2012 through June 2013:
Urban Fantasy
Fantasy
Paranormal Romance
Steam/Clockwork and Science Fiction Fantasy - These are a bit of everything that just don't fit properly in any class.  MUST READS!! Some even are of Romance too!

Author's Favorite Quotes from my Favorite books of the last year:
Chloe Jacobs for GRETA AND THE GOBLIN KING -Young Adult
Philippa Ballantine for THE JANUS AFFAIR - Steampunk
Philippa Ballantine for WRAYTH - Urban Fantasy
Dina James for TIME HEALS - Young Adult
Resa Nelson for THE DRAGONSLAYER'S SWORD and THE IRON MAIDEN - Fantasy
Collin Earl for THE HOUSE OF GREY - Young Adult
Frances Pauli for UNLIKELY - Fantasy
Kate SeRine for RED and THE BETTER TO SEE YOU - Paranormal Romance
Frances Pauli for DIMENSIONAL SHIFT - Science Fiction Romance touch
S.A. Huchton for MAVEN - Romance Science Fiction


Cover Reveals: (click titles to go to post & learn more)

Nemesis by S.A. Huchton

Reviews:
Book Review:

No reviews as they would get lost in all the posts for the Blog Birthday celebrations.

GIVEAWAYS:

Winner will get to pick ONE of my top 5 as their prize!

Top 5 Reads for July 2012 through June 2013:
Urban Fantasy
Fantasy
Paranormal Romance
Steam/Clockwork and Science Fiction Fantasy - These are a bit of everything that just don't fit properly in any class.  MUST READS!! Some even are of Romance too!

Weekly Posts:

***NEW*** Mythical Monday - Skyla Dawn Cameron talking Saber-Tooth Cat, and you get to meet Rodney Ballsgalore.
Teaser Tuesday
Who? What? Where? Wend.
Throwback Thursday
Looking Forward To...
Freebies and Deals, on Nook too

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This Week to Come on the Blog:

A WHOLE BIG week of stuff!  Okay, so it's my Blog's 4th Birthday and I've got lists of the Top 5s for the last year for different genres along with several of those authors sharing favorite lines or scenes from the books.  I'm going to share bits with you of these books to introduce them to you.  AND, there will be giveaways!!! :D Woot Woot!

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Received Last Week:

Review:

Nothing this week

Purchased/Winnings/Gifts:

Sweet Oblivion by Bailey Ardisone
Goodreads Synopsis:
When two worlds collide, nightmares become reality. And some secrets...are best kept in Oblivion.
...Until there is hope.

Have you ever wanted to forget? Nariella Woodlinn has. Many times. Especially when her already frustrating life gets turned upside down by a mysterious boy who randomly shows up in her small town. And she can't seem to understand anything about him, despite how much she tries.
​Nari hates everything about her life, except for her best friend Rydan, but now that they've been separated during their senior year of high school, she has to learn to make new friends without him. When strange, unexplainable phenomena start becoming an every day part of her life, Nari struggles to come to grips with reality. And with love.

~
​
Naminé has responsibilities. Duties. It is her obligation to fulfill all that is asked of her by their King. But when a glimmer of hope is introduced to her by a prisoner she tends to, it means life or death for her and her people. She does all that she can to turn that hope into reality, and finally end the vicious war that has been ensuing since she was born. Even if that means keeping it secret from her King. Even if it means carrying out the biggest betrayal against the King ever seen during her time.
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She has hope. She will fulfill her duty. She will not let her people down.

Sweet Escape, the second book in the Sweet Series, is coming to you July 25th, 2013!

War of the Seasons by Janine K. Spendlove
Goodreads Synopsis:
Eirnin's silver eyes, now showing hints of bright yellow, widened in astonishment as he stared, transfixed, at the red blood dripping from the wound on Story's foot.

"What are you?"

A simple question with a not-so-simple answer for seventeen-year-old Story, who finds herself, a lone human, thrust in the middle of a war between creatures she once thought only existed in faerie tales.

Mysterious Ways by Michael A. Stackpole
Goodreads Synopsis:
Televangelist T. Thomas Thickett is better at raising money and causing trouble than he is at saving souls. One of his disciples, a high school teacher, fails a paper by Sara Piper, a self-avowed witch.This tanks her chances of being the class Valedictorian, transferring that honor to another member of Thickett’s flock. Sara protests, drawing occultist Merlin Bloodstone into the fray. When Thickett ends up dead, Bloodstone and his aide, Connor Moran, have to unravel a tangled web of deception to uncover the truth, or watch an innocent woman die for a crime she did not commit.

From the pen of New York Times Bestselling author Michael A. Stackpole, comes the first novel in a mystery series featuring occultist Merlin Bloodstone and his skeptical assistant. Highly reminiscent of the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout, Mysterious Ways mixes, murder, mysticism and religion into an exciting puzzle full of twists and turns.

Forced Conversion by Donald J. Bingle
Goodreads Synopsis:
Forced Conversion is set in the near future, at a time when mankind has largely retreated to the realms of virtual reality, where resources are unlimited and the problems of the real world violence, conflict, sickness, and pain can all be avoided. Everyone can have heaven, any heaven they want, but some people don't want to go. Unfortunately, those who stay behind in the real world pose a risk to the immortality of those in the virtual worlds. Derek, a soldier in the Conversion Forces (ConFoes), seeks to enforce the Mandatory Conversion Act on the remaining mals (malcontent Luddites, gangbangers, and religious fanatics). He just wants to put in his time and join his family on one of the virtual worlds. But until then, he is forced to deal with his psychotic squadmates, the increasingly brutal tactics of the ConFoes, and a female Lieutenant from a mal religious faction who might just be a better soldier than he is.

Most science fiction deals with worlds transformed by technological advance. Forced Conversion highlights the troubling and chaotic process of that transformation, itself. It combines the adrenaline soaked action of military fiction with the extrapolation of current scientific trends of the best speculative fiction, while dealing with the moral and religious implications of both war and technology.  When Moore's Law meets God's Law, the result is forced conversion.

Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews
Goodreads Synopsis:
Atlanta is a city plagued by magical problems. Kate Daniels will fight to solve them—no matter the cost.

Mercenary Kate Daniels and her mate, Curran, the Beast Lord, are struggling to solve a heartbreaking crisis. Unable to control their beasts, many of the Pack’s shapeshifting children fail to survive to adulthood. While there is a medicine that can help, the secret to its making is closely guarded by the European packs, and there’s little available in Atlanta.

Kate can’t bear to watch innocents suffer, but the solution she and Curran have found threatens to be even more painful. The European shapeshifters who once outmaneuvered the Beast Lord have asked him to arbitrate a dispute—and they’ll pay him in medicine. With the young people’s survival and the Pack’s future at stake, Kate and Curran know they must accept the offer—but they have little doubt that they’re heading straight into a trap…

Along Came a Spider by Kate SeRine
Goodreads Synopsis:
Along came a spider…

When Trish Muffet is attacked at a grisly crime scene, the last person she expects to come to her rescue is Nicky “Little Boy” Blue. But since walking away from everything two years before, Nicky’s been doling out vigilante justice as “The Spider,” taking on the vicious predators of the night in hopes it’ll lead him to his ultimate target – Vlad Dracula. And he needs Trish’s help.

Although Nicky’s renegade style goes against everything Trish stands for, she’ll do what she must to bring Dracula down. With danger stalking her, Trish knows the only person she can count on is the one man who has the power to leave her breathless. There’s no way she’s letting this spider frighten her away…



Free Ebooks:

Collide by Shelly Crane
Goodreads Synopsis:
Sherry has always known there was something out there. She's eighteen, works for a tabloid newspaper in Chicago and has a brother, Danny who is a lazy mooch. They live a pretty normal dull life with hippie parents and a normal existence. Then the moon dissapears and people start to go missing only to reappear later, but different. Sherry has an abusive ex-boyfriend who shows up and claims to be one of these beings that have been showing up around the world. He's no longer the same person in that body. He tells her he has come to protect her and her brother and takes her underground, against her will to save her, where they meet others like them. She begins to unravel the truth about Merrick, about what he's really doing here, about the way he looks at her, about the crazy dangerous world they live in. Can he convince her that he's here to help? Will she like what she finds when she opens up to the truth? Will he be the one to love her when everyone else has failed her? Will he be able to protect her?

Earth Girls Are Difficult by Frances Pauli
Goodreads Synopsis:
Eight tales of wily women from author, Frances Pauli...

Whether they are causing trouble or just getting into it, they've got what it takes to get the job done. Need a little bacon to domesticate a hell hound? Looking to seduce an Italian vampire? You need look no further. From vengeful goddesses to mythical tattooists, from train robbery to the local spelling bee, these women are well prepared and fully armed for adventure. They have the tools. They have the attitude. They're tough, tricky, and possibly just a teeny bit wicked.

Table of Contents:

Idol Games
Offerings
Bad Dog
El Emperador
Forbidden
Silent Partner
Priceless
Promises

The Ice owl by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Goodreads Synopsis:
A Best Novella Nominee for the Hugo Awards.

This story first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2011.

From The Author's Induction:

The Ice Owl is set in the same universe—though not on the same planet—as my previous novella from Arc Manor/Phoenix Pick, Arkfall. I have started calling this universe the Twenty Planets. I never planned to write linked stories; this universe just keeps luring me back because the rules are congenial. Humans have invented light-speed transport and (by the time this story takes place) primitive instantaneous communication. This creates some interesting situations I like to play with. For example, in this story I wanted to explore what it would be like to grow up as...

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Reviews in the Works:

The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan
The Rose and the Thorn by Michael J. Sullivan

Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

Dragonsoul by Philippa Ballantine
Into Darkness by S.A. Archer & S. Ravynheart

Requiem by Ken Scholes

Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell